A Balanced Approach to Wellness

Posts tagged ‘habits’

The previous post was about changing ourselves and the will to change. Today’s post delves into my personal failing habit, with hope it can speak to others.

A thing that fails me is my addiction to sugar. I wrote about it in the post “My Contract for Overcoming Cravings“. My sugar addiction was bestowed upon me by well-meaning parents and a food industry that pushed sugar. From a young age, my addiction to sugar affected my health and my food choices, and it followed me into adulthood. Even as an adult educated in the insidiousness of sugar, I have continuous cravings for sugar, which I indulge too often.

The sugar-sneaked-in foods feed the addiction when I’m “off” sugar. The struggle to resist the sugar receives lip service from me, not conviction, because as soon as a host offers me sweet refreshments, I abandon my convictions and knowledge and say, “Sure” rather than explain or offend. My convictions are easily swayed by a pretty sugary confection.

My will to change is affected by the addiction. I’d like to be able to focus on so many other significant aspects of life, but the sugar addiction often takes the focus.

Spirit prompts me to make many changes in my life so that I can be reverent and virtuous in my living in order to be a conduit for the wisdom that is sacred. You would think that the closeness of my connection to Spirit would simplify the process of change. It should, but the force of the sugar addiction, and a few other negative habits, thwart my efforts.

So how can I change the things that I know fail me? Here’s what Spirit says:

Acknowledge the areas that create negativity, shame and imbalance, and then develop ways to change them.

Acknowledge the actions that are in line with goals. Small and large actions are worth acknowledgement.

Look an addiction straight in its glory and acknowledge its power. Then do the work to end it.

One step at a time, change is achieved. The things that fail us can be changed when we really want to change them.

Wanting something—really wanting something—really, really wanting something—wanting something determinedly—inspires us to invest our time and thoughts to the wanted thing. When we know our energy is concentrated on achieving desires, we are willing to work and struggle. We are even willing to change!

Sometimes we say we want something—and we really mean to mean it—but the work seems too hard, the struggle feels endless, and the resolve to change is unsure. We waver, because the effort to change and invest ourselves fully overwhelms our self-fabricated existence.

Perhaps the desired thing is desired by someone else for us. Perhaps the desired thing is wanted, but not mightily. Perhaps the desired thing calls, but it conflicts with our obligations and schedules. Sometimes the desired thing is unattainable because of habits, opinions, or addictions we have entrapped ourselves in.

Really wanting something can be tangible awareness of soulful communication when the desired goal fulfills soulful elevation. The wants that give us true fulfillment are the ones that deserve investment.

The will to change: willing to strive and to invest effort, willing to make mistakes and to embrace differences, willing to change habits and to persevere. We can all live satisfying lives when we are willing to know ourselves and change the things we know fail us.

The passing of customs and traditions is what people do. The customs and traditions guide younger people in living that has been tested. The testing is done in each generation within the boundaries of the existing ways of being. By design, people are meant to learn from the ones who lived before. Each generation of parents and elders is needed to transmit information and teach dependable practices and reliable skills.

Relinquishing the responsibility to teach the younger generation is faulty. The younger generation cannot understand society and behavior without careful guidance. The guidance of elders provides stability and security.

When society is skewed in its actions and treatment of the environment, of animals, and of people, the passing of customs and traditions that are causing the skewed behavior require the questioning of the younger generation to bring change. In these cases, the younger generation influences the fixed behavior through insistent inquiry and debate. Change can develop when all the generations learn from one another in the generational way.

Here’s an interesting look at habits from the upcoming book of poetry titled “Connection”. This book will be published this summer.